Osprey Men-at-Arms

ACW Union Artillery, Cavalry,
and Infantry

review by Paul Koch

Text by Philip Katcher; Color Plates by Ron Volstad

Number 2 in the new Osprey series on the late unpleasantness between the states has just been received by this reviewer. As regular readers of THE COURIER know, I was very pleased with that work, indeed I bordered on the effusive. I can't be that pleased with the Yankee effort that has followed. Partly this is due to the undeniable fact that the Northern units of the war, being more regularly and evenly equipped, produce a more standard and, let's face it, more dull appearance than their more ragged and more colorful reb foes. There is much good here. We find what proportions of horse and foot wore the slouch black hat. the standard "Hardee" and the famous kepi. The Zouaves too are covered with a fine hand. However much is left out. There is almost no mention of colors, standards and flags. One hopes that this will be corrected by a later Osprey, but as the Union armies had not only regimental flags but those for brigade, division, and corps in a somewhat baffling system of colors this is a worthwhile bit of helpful information for organizing one's tabletop armies.

While I personally reorganize for almost every game intermixing my "literary" units with my "historical" units, most Civil War gamersare fond of, say the First Corps at Gettysburg, thus the numerous flags would be useful. Also I still don't knowwhat percentof units tucked their pants into socks making a sort of gaiter.

Perhaps I am being too severe because I hoped for so much. This is a fine effort. Katcher's text is again well and clearly written and his research is equally sound. Volstad's plates are at least as good as those of the "Johnnies". It is therefore a worthy effort in the Osprey series.

The weapons chapter is very good on small arms but largely omits the time of their introduction. We know for example that the Spencer was popular, deadly and numerous, but we are never told when those infernal death machines were actually in use. Artillery too is not even mentioned. What was the proportion of Smoothbore to Rifle? This we are not told.

There are omissions; it is not as good as the Confederate edition; but it is a very good and worthwhile investment for the ACW gamer. I do recommend it.

More Reviews

Back to Table of Contents -- Courier Vol. VII #3
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 1986 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com